Acts 15:14Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

First Peter spoke more forcefully, and then James more gently. This is how one who has greater authority must always act: he should leave rebukes to others and speak himself with greater meekness. He said well, “Simon has declared,” as though Simon too were expressing the opinion of others. See how ancient he presents this matter as being. “He visited,” he says, “the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name.” Not simply “visited,” but “for His name,” that is, for His glory. He is not ashamed to call the reception of the Gentiles the glory of His name, since this is a great glory. Here he points to something great. To what? To the fact, he says, that they were received “at first.”

“Simeon has declared.” This is the Simeon who prophesies in the Gospel according to Luke: “Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart, O Master” (Lk 2:29). “To take from among the Gentiles a people for His name.” The Lord was pleased to receive people from the Gentiles not simply, but “for His name,” that is, for the name of His glory.

Relying on Peter’s speech, he said: it has already been shown how God first received the Gentiles, in order to form from them a sacred kingdom for Himself.

"Simon has declared," and so forth. With wisdom James lays as the foundation of his speech the same fact on which Peter's speech also rested. By this fact God had so clearly testified to His will concerning the reception of the Gentiles into the Church apart from the Jewish law. Yet James's very expression concerning this fact is both original and striking. God looked upon the Gentiles to take from them a people for His name. In Scripture, "Gentiles" and "people" are almost everywhere commonly set in contrast. The people chosen by God, the Hebrew people, are contrasted with all the other nations of the earth, whom God allowed to walk in their own ways, the Gentiles. James joins this contrast together and says that from the Gentiles God formed a people for His name.

The speech of the Apostle James, the first bishop of Jerusalem, is brief, yet deeply substantial and powerful. First he makes a remarkable reference to the speech of the Apostle Peter. Namely, God had foreordained that peoples of God should be formed even from the Gentiles. He expressed this less sharply by replacing it with the words "a people for His name," which essentially means the same thing. Then he confirms the truth of the Apostle Peter's words by citing prophecy. Finally, he makes the corresponding proposal to the Council, which accepts it. "James was bishop of the Jerusalem Church, and therefore he speaks last," writes Saint John Chrysostom. "Consider his prudence.